Collection Future
We are further developing the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin as a key knowledge infrastructure. We are cataloguing objects and data in a sustainable manner and creating new avenues of access for researchers and the wider public.
Overview
The Collection as a Scientific Infrastructure
The research collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is a key scientific infrastructure. It preserves over 30 million objects and their documentation as a material memory of nature, as a research resource of international significance, and as a starting point for societal engagement with biodiversity, evolution and environmental change. As a knowledge infrastructure, it links physical objects, digital data, expertise and curatorial practice – thereby laying the foundations for research, knowledge transfer and public engagement.
Shaping the collection of the future
The CollectionFuture science programme is actively shaping this infrastructure. Two key questions are at the heart of its work: How do we develop the collection of the future – and how do we create the structural, technical and epistemological conditions for multi-perspective forms of research and knowledge transfer?
The science programme combines collection and data management, information science, digitisation, and perspectives from the cultural and social sciences. The aim is to sustainably catalogue objects, data and knowledge of nature, establish FAIR data spaces, and make the collection accessible in a responsible manner.
Interdisciplinary collaboration for the collection of the future
Inter- and multidisciplinary research groups open up different perspectives on infrastructure development and use. Through targeted initiatives, such as the Collection Access and Development project, the research area is actively driving forward the transformation of the collection.
In close collaboration with the other science programmes, national and international partners, and stakeholders from academia, industry and society, this creates a sustainable, interconnected knowledge base for nature.
Management
Dr Mareike Petersen
Head of Science Programme
Email: Mareike.Petersen@mfn.berlin
Dr Frederik Berger
Deputy Head of Science Programme
Email: Frederik.Berger@mfn.berlin
The Museum Evolution
Collection discovery
The collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin comprises an estimated 30 million objects and forms a key foundation for research into biodiversity, evolution and the development of our planet. Many of these objects – from meteorites and type specimens to fossils such as the Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx – contain knowledge relevant to current issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental change. In the sub-project ‘Collection Access and Development’, we are working to systematically preserve, document and make this wealth of knowledge digitally accessible.
In the research area ‘Collection Future’, we are creating the infrastructural, technical and scientific conditions for this. The departments are developing conservation and digital processes, establishing sustainable data infrastructures and opening up new access to objects and collection data. The sub-project is part of the Future Plan running until 2028 and is also a central component of the museum’s evolution. Collection discovery remains an ongoing task that is constantly evolving in line with new technologies and research questions.
